IMF chief: 'Global growth forecasts are fairly good'

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), gave an interview to FRANCE 24 in the Moroccan city of Marrakech. She discussed the IMF's recent global growth forecasts, calling them "fairly good" at 3.9% for both 2018 and 2019. Lagarde added that this growth is "generated by more than 120 countries, which represent roughly three-quarters of the world economy".

However, IMF chief Christine Lagarde noted that "in the Middle East and North Africa - and even more so in sub-Saharan Africa - the growth rates are still much lower than they were before the crisis".

Lagarde went on to underline the need to further develop the private sector in these countries. "We can no longer continue meeting the need for more jobs by creating additional jobs in the civil service", she explained.

A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University, he was a journalist in New York for ten years before joining FRANCE 24 in 2009. He is specialised in French politics, Africa and the Middle East.

ANNETTE YOUNGPresenter

Originally from Australia, she is a senior journalist and presenter who has reported from Europe, Asia and the Middle East. When not fronting the network’s show on women’s issues, she is a news anchor and an international affairs commentator.

DOUGLAS HERBERTInternational Affairs Editor

This native New Yorker joined FRANCE 24 at its launch in 2006, lured by a lifelong love of French language and literature. He began his journalism career in the early 1990s in Russia and is now a foreign affairs commentator.

ARMEN GEORGIANForeign Affairs Analyst

Since he joined FRANCE 24 in 2006, he has reported on major political stories from Berlin, Moscow and New York. He has an interest in the ex-Soviet sphere and has filed feature stories from that area.